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On Monday, the governor addressed Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the U.S. House Democratic Caucus on the need to encourage the Senate to pass the HEROES Act, a state and local aid package approved by the House last month.
Under the legislation, Washington would receive $10.7 billion in state funds, and an additional $1 billion to local governments. Washington state’s operating budget currently faces a forecasted shortfall of more than $8 billion over the next three years.
The state will face dramatic cuts to services for the people of Washington without more federal aid to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts. Substantial cuts to state and local governments will only mean more painful decisions that potentially exacerbate the recession and undermine our economic recovery.
About 70% of Washington’s current budget is protected by state law, meaning officials can only cut from the other 30%. Unprotected spending items include higher education, corrections, many human services, and natural resources.
 On Tuesday, the governor traveled to Yakima to meet with leaders in government, health care and business, to discuss Yakima’s exceptionally high COVID-19 transmission rates. Inslee said they had “frank discussions” and thanked them for their honesty.
The rate of COVID-19 spread in Yakima County is 27 times that of King County, the state’s largest county. Unique factors have exacerbated the spread in Yakima County, such as a high percentage of jobs in essential industries, meaning more daily movement for more residents. However, health modelers, by comparing the rate of transmission among the same demographic populations in different counties, believe there are other factors influencing behaviors and the spread of COVID-19 in Yakima County.
Yakima County remains in Phase 1 of Safe Start, and Inslee, a former longtime Yakima area resident and elected official there, implored community members to take more steps to protect public health. This includes the need for more widespread use of facial coverings.
Inslee also told leaders he would consider additional ways to reopen more activities in Yakima County if appropriate health guidelines can be implemented.
On Wednesday, Gov. Inslee announced a new investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, a Tacoma man who died in Tacoma police custody in March. It was not until three months into the Pierce County Sheriff’s office’s independent investigation that the office revealed to prosecutors that their deputies were also present at the scene.
In light of this conflict of interest created for county officials, the governor and Attorney General’s Office set to work to develop an independent investigative team in compliance with Initiative 940. The State Patrol will conduct the investigation and refer its findings to the Attorney General’s Office for review for potential criminal charges against the police officers alleged in connection to Ellis’ death.
The governor and attorney general also expressed concerns about whether the Pierce County Sheriff’s office appropriately followed the requirements of Initiative 940, a law that improves police accountability practices approved by voters in 2018.
Inslee said the investigative team’s work would begin by the end of next week.
Also Wednesday, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council’s quarterly revenue estimate projected a shortfall of $4.5 billion in the state’s current budget biennium alone. Even if the state used all of its reserve funds, that would leave a more than $1 billion shortfall that must be addressed in the current biennium.
Revenue in the 2021-2023 biennium is expected to be reduced by $4.3 billion.
Inslee has already found ways to reduce expenditures this biennium with nearly half a billion in budget cuts through vetoes to the supplemental budget approved in March. Last month, the governor asked state agencies to explore 15% budget reductions.
Later that day, the governor announced cancelled pay raises for 5,600 non-union state employees and furloughs that would affect many more, about 40,000 individuals total. These measures are expected to save the state $55 million this year.
If state agencies not under the governor’s authority – such as the Legislature, courts and separately elected offices – took similar steps, it would save the state another $91 million this year.
“I know some are enthusiastic about slashing the budget, but I think every elected official needs to take a sober look at this,” Inslee said. “Our government is by the people, and it needs to be able to function so it can serve the people.”
On Friday, the governor celebrated Juneteenth with other Washingtonians in observance of the emancipation of the last enslaved black Americans in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. It was two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Over the next decade, Congress passed revolutionary laws to create and protect the rights of black Americans. But those rights were later systematically and viciously wiped out in the collapse of Reconstruction efforts.
Over the course of the next 100 years, supposedly free African Americans were disenfranchised and brutalized by our public institutions, Inslee said.
“The damage caused by denying generations of citizens their share of the American Dream is immeasurable,” he said.
Watch the governor's Juneteenth video message here.
Inslee said our nation has made undeniable gains for racial justice. But today’s protests, and what sparked them, are a reminder that our work is far from done, Inslee said.
“We’re starting those efforts by bringing accountability to law enforcement, which has too often left black and brown communities without justice after police-involved killings,” Inslee said. “Our goal is to eliminate these deaths completely. But until we can do that, we must guarantee justice through independent and thorough investigations.”
Inslee has committed to working with leaders from across the state to develop budget proposals and legislation for next session that explicitly focuses on eliminating racism across these systems.
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